Lately I've been working on a weekend side project, leveling an Alliance character so I can join in on Real ID fun times with Twitter/blog friends!

I've tried this before, trying to think what character might be most useful, or what class might have the best leveling/queue possibilities. I've had a dwarf death knight, a dwarf shaman, a draenei warrior, a gnome mage, etc.

These attempts have always met in failure.

So this time, I decided, SCREW IT. I'm going to stick with a class I know, that I know come endgame I'll be pretty good at.

And so Leisl, the human hunter was born. I rolled her on Medivh to hang out with Waypointers.

Choosing the race was an interesting process. Male night elf or human male were immediately out because god no. Female night elf, was a possibility. I was tired of draenei. I was tired of dwarves.

But I was pleasantly surprised with the female human bow animation! Strong stance, powerful looking draw (on the bow)...I was sold.

Leveling was actually quite interesting, as I hadn't leveled a hunter since Rades, waaaaaaay back in The Burning Crusade. I was somewhat surprised at how easy it went, considering I was on a server with limited funds and no heirlooms or anything. Not THAT surprised, since I mean, I'm pretty damn familiar with hunters. But things like Disengage at level 14 blew my mind.

Oh, and BEAST MASTERY, OF COURSE.

The first weekend, I got to level 40. The second, 60. The third, 70! Then things got derailed slightly when on weekend four I went to Calgary to visit Vidyala and attend the Calgary Comic Expo. But the weekend after I got right back into it, hitting 80, and on Saturday I finished up Cataclysm quest content and dinged 85 while setting up some dwarves to get married, or something.

I had quested with maximum efficiency in mind, having completed Deepholm to get my Therazane rep up (as well as done the dailies 2-3 times) and done all of the Ramkahen quests in Uldum (Ramkahen sells the Agility head enchants.) So my first order of business upon dinging 85 was to get their tabards and...

...do a 25-man Baradin's Hold??

Haha, yes, without shame I joined that 25-man pug, having been 85 for oh, 15 minutes now? And yeah, I did outdps 5-6 people.

After that though, I bypassed regulars completely by buying some 378 BoE bracers and a 346 Therazane rep ring, and with the help of some lovely 397 Mail boots, a gift from Lizzy! 4-5 heroics and I had enough JP to get into the Dragon Soul heroics...with the help of a 390 Honor trinket and some 377 cloth shoulders that sat in my bags. ;)

By Sunday afternoon, I'd hit Exalted with Therazane, got my Revered with Ramkahen, had some gems cut by Snack, which meant it was time for LFR!

I didn't top the charts or anything (that would be SUPER BAD), but you know what? I did come in between #5-10 on DPS. And I'm quite content with that. I even got some LFR tier legs.

My goals for the week having been met (doing LFR before reset, and hitting the VP cap before reset - MANY TIMES OVER), I started thinking about Transmog. Without many resources on this server, my options were limited to basically "what I could easily get". The tmog set I'm currently using uses a lot of actual piece appearances, but with the Talhide chest (always a favorite) I think it looks pretty good.

My money is on the tape and a handy bucket. Seriously though the hunters seem to level themselves when you're not looking. I think I could safely make that statement about all classes with the leveling process now. It's come quite a long way in the painless department. That would probably explain why I gave numerous 85s sitting about as part of some forgotten project.